It seems like you guys prefer the bilstiens. I am currently running the Rancho RS5000's and my biggest complaint on the trails are rocks that are 6inches to 2 feet in diameter. Ir rocks the living crap out of my jeep. There are trails up here in colorado where that is mostly all you ride on, and it is extremely annoying. I have a RE 4.5" lift and the springs are super flexy, so I love it when I finnally get to huge boulders to crawl over, as it is a relief from the constant jarring and teeth ratteling.

Do these shocks really make that big of a difference? What exactly is the difference?

My buddies in their coiled JK's and TJ's handle these smaller bumps like a caddy, and I have always chalked it up to coils. But will bilsteins help with this, or are the leaf springs always going to ride like crap in this situation?

Yeah airing down helps. It is definately way worse when I am at higher PSI, but either way it is freaking bad. I also primarily only air down if we are hitting a particularly hard rock crawling trail.

I guess I am just trying to get an exact reason to spend the good money on shocks. It has been my experience that because most leaf springs are so stiff, the shocks really don't make a difference. I would like to hear exactly why one would "love" their Bilsteins in comparison to a cheaper shock? What exactly did they notice between their OE shock and the Bilstein?

I had ranchos on a CJ and bilsteins on an XJ. The ranchos were much stiffer.

But didn't your XJ have Coils? Unless your CJ had coils as well there is no way you are comparing the shocks. Your XJ had a softer ride because it had coil suspension up front, not because it had bilsteins.

I know its not a CJ, but I recently went from ProComp 3000 series on my 2003 F350 (bought new 11/02) leaf sprung with a ProComp Stage II 4" lift. Was the second set of ProComp shocks, and at 214,000 miles, went to the 5100 series Bilstine's. Don't know any technical reasons why...but they ride much, much nicer, both empty running, and towing my 14,000lb toyhauler.